Iowa State Penitentiary - History

History

The prison was established in 1839, one year after Iowa became a territory, and seven years before it became a state in 1846. ISP was patterned after the penitentiary in Auburn, New York. In 1982 the prison was remodeled, and unitization was introduced at ISP. The unitization divided the large cell blocks into smaller units that were easier to manage. In 2008 the prisons library was moved to another location on the grounds. The ISP library offers an extensive book collection, as well as computers for inmate use. However, prisoners do not have access to the Internet.

Before the abolition of capital punishment in Iowa, executions were performed at Fort Madison. An interesting note in the history of the prison was the execution of Victor Feguer. Feguer was a drifter who had murdered Dubuque doctor Edward Bartels. After appeals that even went as far as President John F. Kennedy were denied, Feguer was executed by hanging on March 15, 1963. Feguer was the last inmate in the Federal prison system to be put to death for nearly 40 years until the execution of Timothy McVeigh at the Terre Haute, Indiana Federal Prison in 2001. Feguer also became the last person in Iowa to be executed, soon after his death Iowa abolished the death penalty. While Feguer's death attracted little attention at the time, the execution of McVeigh attracted renewed interest in the Feguer execution.